You don’t need a degree in international affairs to understand the message 
Xi Jinping sent on Sep 3 as he paraded tanks, hypersonic missiles and other weapons through Beijing, putatively to honor the end of World War II. Xi and his allies aspire to dethrone the US as the world’s premier power.
An axis of US adversaries is alive and well, and Trump’s return to power didn’t dent their expanding cooperation. Some of Trump’s advisers are preoccupied with peeling apart Messrs. Xi and Putin, in a spin on Richard Nixon’s opening to China in 1972. But Nixon exploited a split with the Soviets that already existed, and this week’s camaraderie is a reminder there’s no such rift now.
Beijing’s choice to flex its military power on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II is notable. The axis of adversaries wants to tell a new story of the world since 1945, diminishing the singular US role in ending that war and building the order that followed. The revisionist history is part of a larger ambition to rearrange the global balance of power.
Trump hopes his personal diplomacy can help strike deals with different dictators on different issues. But America’s adversaries are united, while Trump hits US allies with a tariff barrage.
The parade is also a wake-up call about the balance of military power. Xi showed off everything from undersea vehicles to new ICBMs. He’s building a military that can get what it wants when it decides to move — don’t think his ambitions stop at swallowing the vital US friend Taiwan.
wsj.com/opinion/china-
Xi Jinping sent on Sep 3 as he paraded tanks, hypersonic missiles and other weapons through Beijing, putatively to honor the end of World War II. Xi and his allies aspire to dethrone the US as the world’s premier power.
An axis of US adversaries is alive and well, and Trump’s return to power didn’t dent their expanding cooperation. Some of Trump’s advisers are preoccupied with peeling apart Messrs. Xi and Putin, in a spin on Richard Nixon’s opening to China in 1972. But Nixon exploited a split with the Soviets that already existed, and this week’s camaraderie is a reminder there’s no such rift now.
Beijing’s choice to flex its military power on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II is notable. The axis of adversaries wants to tell a new story of the world since 1945, diminishing the singular US role in ending that war and building the order that followed. The revisionist history is part of a larger ambition to rearrange the global balance of power.
Trump hopes his personal diplomacy can help strike deals with different dictators on different issues. But America’s adversaries are united, while Trump hits US allies with a tariff barrage.
The parade is also a wake-up call about the balance of military power. Xi showed off everything from undersea vehicles to new ICBMs. He’s building a military that can get what it wants when it decides to move — don’t think his ambitions stop at swallowing the vital US friend Taiwan.
wsj.com/opinion/china-